Aliens / John J. Bowman Single Barrel Bourbon

0:00 Some whiskey Nation. Do you ever think about Awards course he do you drink whiskey and watch movies which means that, you know, that nothing is validated until a group of random people say hey we love what you're doing. The awesome thing about doc Swensons, whiskey is that it isn't just some group of schlubs that are given them Awards. They have been winning attention from some of the most important whiskey experts that you can imagine. They've been voted best distillery in Washington state by the New York International Spirits competition. They've been voted the best independent Pendant bottler by the Ascot Awards as well as the best finished bourbon from the Ascot awards for their La. Mente exploratory Cask their exploratory Cask series is where they release some of the most fascinating and adventurous experiments.

0:43 If you're ever checking out, docks line up and see a white label is a really good chance that that's the only time you'll see that bottle. So, make sure you snatch it up. Doc Swensons has been offering just phenomenal finished and Blended whiskies for quite some time. Now, you can find them online at Doc's, whisky.com. That's the OCS whisky.com in 1986 director, James Cameron, and star Sigourney Weaver gave the world. An action packed sequel. That nearly sucks your face off in 2022. We take a trip to Virginia to try a uniquely distilled. Whiskey, the film is aliens. The whiskey is Jon, Jay Bowman single barrel and we'll review them both. This is the film and whiskey podcast. Cast, welcome to the film and whiskey podcast.

1:49 Where each week, we review a classic movie and a glass of whiskey. I'm Bob book, I'm Reggie and this week we are looking at James Cameron's. 86 sci-fi horror action, Masterpiece aliens. I'm not gonna lie Brad. I had this kind of circled on the schedule this year because this movie just goes so freaking hard, dude. Like, I don't know. I will probably sound more like a bro today than I've ever sounded in the history of our podcast because there is something that's just purely. This movie is, like, pure adrenaline and it works and it just like, I have, I have no notes. I have no complaints.

2:33 I'm just gonna sit here for the next hour and bask in the glory of Jim Cameron's Direction. Yeah, I mean, he just takes the first movie and turns it into an action thriller, and it's perfect. Yeah, and I love everything about it, you know, after this, This week we're going to watch Terminator and Terminator 2. James Cameron is a master at sequels. It's just something that he's really good at developing themes but also turning the, you know, like I don't say subverting I hate when people use that word but kind of turning things on their head a little bit and we might as well start off talking about the dip.

3:14 The obvious difference is between this movie and 1979's alien a film that we have done on the show before Brad, I assume you have not Revisited alien since we watched it a couple of years ago. I have not no. Do you remember at least the sort of General Vibe and rhythm of that movie. I mean yeah that was a very I don't know it's a straightforward horror movie because it's very high-end sci-fi to like they crash. They find that empty space ship with the gigantic dead alien skeleton in it. They're like what the hell's going on and then the Xenomorphs happen and there's a ton of like, I don't know, unspoken mythology.

3:56 She going on in the alien universe. That never really gets expanded on until Ridley. Scott comes back and does his sequels, you know, in the, in the 2000s, but in this man until Prometheus rights answer, all the questions nobody was asking, I am not a fan of Prometheus. I know a lot of people like, think it's a Sci-Fi Masterpiece, but I am much more in the gym Cameron like fold because what he did was, he said, you know what? Somebody gave me a suggestion. Like, literally, if you go on this movie, Wikipedia page it says that he wrote a 40-something page treatment for this movie based on the suggestion Ripley and soldiers. That was like the whole theme of the movie. And that's what Jim Cameron was.

4:37 Like, yes, he went off and wrote the treatment for this movie and by God, he did it, man. This movie is freaking great and this is exactly what a sequel to a movie. Like, alien should be. Yeah, I mean, he takes the theme of a horror film. He tweaks it a little bit. He adds a little bit of calm. Bat an action and yet you still have the elements of horror and fear just Rippling throughout this movie and it. Yeah, I think we need to get into bread explains before we just just completely dive in on this. All right. Well then let's go ahead and do a quick segue into Brad explains America's favorite segment of our show.

5:21 This is where Brad breaks down the plot of the film that he has just seen often for the first time. Brad was this your first time checking out aliens. It sure was Robert. All right so what we do here is we put 60 seconds on the clock. Brad has to break down the plot of the film. You know. It's a simple plot but there's also a lot that happens in this movie. So I'm interested to hear where you go with your one minute of time. Brad, go. Officer Ripley awakens after 57 years in cryosleep, and she finds out that there's a colony, where they had originally picked up the alien that killed all of her. Fellow crew members, the the colonizing company loses contact with the colony so they send Ripley and a squad of Marines to go investigate.

6:10 Obviously, the aliens have taken over the colony, and they have to fight for their survival to escape from the planet. Hopefully, destroying the aliens in the process. Hmm, boom, boom. Literally atomic number, Atomic. Boom, man. I don't even know where to start with this movie and I'm trying to think of where the best place would be. And I think maybe it's to talk about the writing of this film, because we will be developing a theme here. That James Cameron is not known for his dialogue writing. And I think once again like the dialogue in this He's not especially great, but everything about this movie is so Kurt and matter-of-fact.

6:53 And to the point that I feel like the dialogue works a lot better here than it does in a movie like Avatar where you're trying to build out sort of fantasy elements. This movie is very much just like military people barking orders at each other and people trying not to get found by aliens. So they're speaking in short sentences and I really thought the dialogue here works. You know, for the most part at least yeah and you get to see See, Sigourney Weaver fleshed out as a character. A little more. I enjoy the way that they bring back certain elements from the first movie. The, the AI in this film I thought was, was really well acted. And honestly, out of all the Sci-Fi films I've ever seen, I really love the way, the Cameron uses AI. I think that he just has a really, they hold a really unique position I suppose.

7:45 Yeah. And I think honestly, the great thing about this script Brad is the way that this movie is structured because, you know, it's slightly over two hours. It's about 2 hours and 15 minutes. And you do not see an alien in this movie until the one-hour Mark. Like, there is a long build-up to the aliens. I wouldn't say that this movie is ever slow-paced or boring. There's just a ton of background that Cameron is trying to build two and he's flushing out the character of Ripley. He's introducing you to the evils of this Corporation. He's introducing you to this small Platoon that she's going to be dropped in with and they really do a great job of building the suspense. Because having watched the first alien you come into this movie, expecting lots of alien kills and you're not getting any for an hour. And then all of a sudden, it's like, hey, what if we had 100 aliens, I just, I just love the idea of people. Somebody being, like, James Cameron, what's the solution here?

8:43 We're stuck. We had a great movie about an alien and he's like, no, no, no, I got it. Hey, Lee Anne, Burrell, we need a plurality are likely and no. Okay to aliens and he's just like more like it. They just keep talking him upright. But use, I mean, you see this colony of aliens and Cameron. Does this great thing where you know, you're now going into the aliens territory. Where is the first movies about an alien kind of invading somebody else's territory. Now you've got this, this crew going into the bowels of an Alien Hive. I've and it's so cool. How he, how his mind thinks about how the eggs are laid and everything else, but you know, obviously what gets all that I guess. I just want to hear your thoughts Brad on the the way this movie is structured.

9:31 The, the build up to that big payoff. I think that there's like a ton of things that people have ripped off from this movie. Since then, in terms of like slow, slow slow build. And then like the last hour is pretty much non-stop action and horror and there's you know, there's false endings there's I mean, I guess it keeps you going until the very last second and I think it all comes back to Cameron's. Really, strong ability to know exactly how I don't know how tense things need to be. Like he really feels like he is orchestrating and conducting this kind of thing to make sure that the Rhythm keep space. I think that's the key to this film.

10:11 Bob is the Rhythm you never are allowed to rest and relax and even Even at the start of the film five minutes in, you have Ripley having a nightmare of the alien bursting from her own belly and it's just enough action to like kind of put you on the edge of your seat and you're never really able to find your way back from there. I think that Paul Reiser does an incredible job. He has such a beautiful mannerism about him. That he's so soft and gentle and kind that you never fully. See it coming how evil he is going to be, and I think that the dialogue between he and Sigourney Weaver near the start of the movie and throughout the middle, I think that they really carry this film in a lot of the ways, as a lot of the Marines are just being Bros and doing ridiculous Marine things. Yeah, if you will, I'm glad you brought up Paul Reiser and it's really funny that we brought up Paul Reiser before we brought up, Sigourney Weaver.

11:13 But, you know, if there's anyone in this cast, who steals scenes away from sin, Ernie Weaver. That isn't an alien. It's Paul Reiser. He just such a good job of, you know. And by the time they kind of find out that he is as evil as he actually is and they have him cornered and they're about to shoot him and he's just like oh this is ridiculous. You know, and he does such a great job of embodying, a guy who eat, you can't even convincingly talk his way out of a being about to get shot. You know what I mean? Like, he is just Sleazy and she calls him Sleazy and he Don't come across as the sleazy businessman, because he's so much smarter and so much more underhanded than that. I thought he did a phenomenal job in this movie. Yeah.

11:58 And and really, he and Sigourney Weaver are the reason this movie works. And I think it's why you look at a lot of the later, aliens movies, you know, they're just not quite as good and that's me just solely basing it on IMDB ratings and what I've heard from my friends but What you have here two actors who know exactly what they're going for in the role and they for me they just had really sincere performances and you know, Paul Reiser is awesome. Sigourney, Weaver is incredible ever. Next slide. I mean that genuinely I would say she has one of the best performances of anyone this whole season in an 80s sci-fi. Be well.

12:49 And that's the thing, too. Is you look at her character in Alien, right? She is, I can't remember exactly what her role is in the crew in the movie Alien, but she's not one of them, right? She's like a consultant or something and she ends up being like the horror movie Last girl. Yeah. That's kind of who she is. And she does a great job at it and she outsmarts the alien and she kicks a little bit of ass and there you go. And then in this movie, she's asked to go from that to, you know, someone who is dealing with. Trauma, someone who is Longing To Be A Mother. Somebody who is then like, hey, here's a machine gun and now you have to be an action hero and never e single beat of that character development is believable.

13:30 And, you know, again, Cameron is not really doing the heavy lifting with his script there. It's Sigourney Weaver. She's just that good. And we've been kind of texting back and forth, Brad about like, we're going to talk about Sigourney Weaver. What makes her so special and it's really hard to put In Quran. Because she does so many things. Well, and I think honestly that's kind of the answer, right? She can be whatever you need, her to be in a movie. She is. She's very slender and feminine so she can play in like a romantic comedy. She's in the movie working. Girl. Just a fantastic job in that movie, but she's also like 6 feet tall and so when she picks up like a shorter Paul Reiser and smashes him into a wall you're like oh this is kind of believable like she's not super buff but she's in very good shape and just Just her sheer size, she really dominates the screen and so when she's asked to do badass things, it's not because she's, you know, overpowering people would sheer Brute Force. But the fact that she is able to kind of balance like this physicality of, I am slender and and you know, traditionally feminine.

14:37 But also like you can put a machine gun in my hand and it is never unbelievable. Like there are very few people in the history of Cinema who could pull that off. Yeah, and her, I think, what I appreciate most about her is that she plays the protagonist role of what traditionally would be a male role with such integrity and calmness. And yet, when it when she needs it, she has a massive range of emotion to draw upon as she is fighting to save this little girl that they found as she's dealing with.

15:17 With the trauma of having survived a horror movie. Like she has this ability to be showing credible emotion and yet, stay calm, and cool headed as she deals with the threats. I honestly, I was watching with my buddy, Stephen and he pointed out that it feels like Brie Larson tries to play a Ripley type character in in Captain Marvel. Hmm. And she just doesn't quite pull it off. She is all lifeless, all cool. All cold and there's not enough emotion there to make you really like her character. Whereas whereas Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, it like it's so easy to fall in love with her as the protagonist because of the emotional range that she had.

16:10 Well and I think honestly, that is a credit to Cameron as a screenwriter here because he builds in those layers and Brad I don't know which version of This you saw there was the theatrical version and then in 1990. So for years after it came out, Cameron recut, it to a director's cut. And here's the crazy thing about this director's cut, it's actually like a minute or so shorter than the theatrical cut. Hey, let's go. Cameron just like earned a few points in my book right there. And the biggest difference is is actually very small. Like he just kind of like tinkered with a few little things but in the very early scenes, where she's been rescued From her floating ship the Nostromo and she's rehabilitating. They tell her that.

16:53 She had a she said something about her daughter. She had a daughter on Earth who was about to turn, 11 years old. And she said that she told her daughter that she would be back before her 11th birthday. And that's when she asks, how long she's been gone? And they tell her 57 years. And then, they also tell her that in that, in the intervening time, span her daughter's gotten old and she got cancer and died. And so that like sets up the character of Ripley to have this, Maternal Arc throughout the movie. So I don't know which version you saw. I watch the theatrical version. I did as well. If you don't remember you having a say, if you don't remember that line then you didn't watch the director's cut. But even without that very obvious set up like you still get the idea of Ripley longing to have some, you know, she has the maternal Instinct but also wanting to be a mother to somebody. And that's a theme that goes all through this movie, even to like the final showdown, with the alien queen like they they very clearly I only have this thing in common which is don't f with my daughter, right?

17:51 And it's because of that that they're able to get real true emotion out of that character because otherwise she does just kind of become this. This badass, you know military chick that she kind of becomes in the latter sequels to this movie and Cameron does such a fantastic job of building those character arcs in and I mean I have to give him credit. Obviously she Exit, but he built them in and that's what's missing from so many protagonists, you know, especially like female protagonist in action films and I think that it, but on top of the fact that the child is there, and it gives this maternal Instinct.

18:32 I think that Cameron does a really great job of using the camera to highlight the relationship between the two. And I think that Weaver as an actress just as a really great job of connecting with, you know, the, the Young Male character of Newt and they just have such good chemistry. And I think that the movie doesn't work without it because, you know, there's a lot of other Sci-Fi movies that have tried to do that and maybe it just works, because this is an early example of it. But man, I love the way that Weaver interacts, with Newt, throughout the film. And the, especially in, like the scene where the where Paul Reiser has released the I don't know the Facehugger when we want to call it. Yeah.

19:20 And into the room where they're sleeping and she's like, beating on the window, trying to get somebody's attention and she realizes she can set up the fire alarm and the way that she protects Newt in that scene is just really Charming in the midst of a horrifying scene. Yeah. And again, like, I'm going to keep coming back to the fact, you know, honestly, I there are times where I kind of get conflated these two movies alien and aliens. And I honestly forgot that the Facehugger thing was in Aliens. I was thinking it was in the first one for some reason and this movie never feels episodic but it's also one of those things where like if you know, if you walked into the room and it was on and you came in at the right time, you're like, oh they're going to do this thing now.

20:03 And I'm going to sit here and watch it until the end of the movie. Because there's like, five more incredible action set pieces from here and like, you think that the movie is about, to hit, just a little bit of a lull, which is the Calm before the storm of when the Aliens arrive and even in that moment. Cameron's like, nope, you like I am not letting you relax at all, this movie is going to be tense AF until we're done. And that Facehugger thing, that that like, that's the best jump-scare in the whole movie. When that thing flies at her, what she like picks her head up over the bed and it flies at her, I jumped 11 feet. I have never jumped that far in my life and I've seen this movie multiple times, it's so effective and I'm gonna keep coming back to like a A camera's ability to direct the hell out of a horror scene. We talked about it in Titanic, we talked about it in Avatar, we're going to talk about it, obviously here. Because this is where it's, I mean, this is like the Fulfillment of that, but it's his screen, we're like his script writing for this movie.

21:03 The introduction of the character of Newt is out of nowhere. Like, the last thing you are expecting to find, because we've spent an hour with only Ripley and only these military people. And there's this very Extended sequence of them kind of like storming the complex and its really quiet because they don't want to disturb anything and then they start getting a beep on the tracker and you don't think there's going to be a human child introduced into this movie at the one hour mark. But once again, it's like something that Cameron throws in there and it takes the movie on a completely different trajectory and it's incredible that he's able to do that with the movie like five or six times and still land the plane. Yeah.

21:44 And that and that's the key thing, right? That he's able All to bring it to such a satisfying conclusion. There's the reconciliation between Ripley and the AI. There is an awesome final battle. There's the payoff of her being able to, you know, use this heavy loader Machinery. In a really slow paced battle that that might have been the worst part of the movie, but it's just all it's just such a good payoff at the end of the film to see them going back into And heading back to Earth. Yeah, that that fight scene at the end is probably the most iconic moment in the movie which is her emerging from that elevator in the suit and sinks, you know, get away from her.

22:30 You bitch, I don't like it's an amazing moment. And then you have to watch like the fact that the Hydraulics and this thing do not move quickly at all. No, and it's a good thing, that that alien queen is the least agile creature because that is like that was it was very Very much, a like, Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. That was thinking, like, like, at the old old Godzilla movies, where it was just like, people in, like zip up costumes that were like inflated, trying to fight each other. Hmm, every once in a while at the minor league, baseball stadium in Akron, they, they do like, Sumo wrestles in between Innings and it reminds me of that problems minor league.

23:11 They do this Grand. They wear like, the inflatable Sumo costumes and they have to run at each other. And they kind of Bounds and then they fall on the ground and they can't get up because they're just rolling. It reminded me of that a little bit but honestly, it's still worth it for the emotional payoff. Yeah, no. 100% I think that that is probably the only misstep in the action sequences of the movie, that really makes it feel a little bit old. Other than that. Bob, we've talked about this being a great and intense horror film. I think the action sequences in this, our Just incredible. This is one of the best action movies of all time and I have been trying to pin down how to talk about James Cameron action as opposed to anybody else.

23:57 You know, our friend Patrick H Williams has a great video about this and even he kind of struggles to put into words, like, what is it about Cameron versus his peers, right? It's not, it's certainly not as chaotic as Michael Bay or is kinetic, as Michael Bay. He doesn't move the camera itself as much as Spielberg does. In a scene and you don't have like this this sense of kind of static geography with him either. Like there are a lot of really rapid Cuts with Cameron like you would see with Michael Bay but whereas with Michael Bay, it's disorienting and incoherent sometimes with Cameron, you always have a sense of where you are. Like he establishes the geography even if he's not, you know, using a really long extended takes to do so or shots to do so. And I think Patrick Williams kind of hit it on the head in his video, He just says, like it's really direct. It's like there are no frills to his action scenes, they're just shot as matter-of-factly as possible and there's not a lot of like over stylization to them. Even an avatar where everything is as computer-generated and they're pretty elaborate you know like things flying and dragons and everything else.

25:11 Like the way the scenes are shot is, here's the information do with it. What you will? You know what I mean? And I actually really love that about Cameron because he trusts the audience to see what they're supposed to see. He's not spoon-feeding anything to you, but he's also not calling a ton of attention to himself with the way he films it. And I think the other thing for me is that he continues to use the little horror touches in the midst of the action scenes, where you get a nice hard bit of action and then a short scene of them, like, Leaping through the hallway, you know, waiting for something else to Ambush them or you have them stumble into the egg room look around. See multiple aliens coming in and see the alien queen like stare them down and there's this standoff, and I think it's moments like that, that they help that they almost help. Give little beats to the action that give the audience just enough of a break to dive back into the next sequence. There are a number of really great ocean moments in this movie.

26:22 And I remember a Brad, I didn't see this movie for the first time until I'd say, I don't know two years ago. It was right around the time. I remember this we recorded the warrior podcast because I was house-sitting for somebody and I watch Warrior for the podcast and then I watched aliens for the first time that night. And I remember at the house all to myself so I could talk freely out loud. It was one of the few times in my life where a movie had a scene that I didn't know was coming and something happened in that scene and I was like oh sure like out loud and it happened it seems that. So for me it happened a couple times like this viewing even though I knew it was coming but the first really good one is right towards the end where Newt is kind of down in the sewer system and then the alien like rises from behind Her I'm like oh that's not good.

27:11 But the one that really gets me is when they're running and trying to get back to the ship at the end and they realize that they've kind of stumbled into the nest and they see all all the eggs in your like, oh this is not good and over the course of about 45 seconds, they slowly come to realize their surroundings and they turn around and you get the first shot of the alien queen and it is so much bigger than any alien that you've seen across four hours of these movies now, And like they're just looking up at it and it is slowly looking down at them and I was just like, oh, look like how on Earth do you get out of this scenario? It's such.

27:51 It's such good filmmaking. There's so many great reveals in this movie and he really plays his cards close to the chest. It's a simple story, but he's always got something more. One more trick up his sleeve before. He'll let you off the roller coaster. Yeah, it's an incredibly kinetic movie. She that I think we have a lot more to say about it Bob, but at this point, I need to drink some whiskey, man. Let's do it. Let's drink this. John J. Bowman. What do you say? I'm ready, man. Let's do it. Alright so today we are trying, John J, Bowman Single Barrel, Bourbon whiskey, the J period.

28:34 I assume stands for Jingleheimer, that's a yes, right obvious, I think that's pretty we all know this right? John Jingleheimer Bowman. Yeah this is actually named after, it was a family of Bowman's that fought in, I believe. The Civil War and upon their retirements, they settled in Virginia and started a Distillery. Yeah. So, the Bowman Distillery is a pretty big Distillery that was bought out, by Sazerac way, back in like 03. I think they have an interesting production story, especially this. What we're drinking today. So this is, like I said, is a single barrel that they bottle at 100 Proof. However, what is in the bottle was not made was not. I don't know what the word.

29:22 It's not that I want. Don't say distilled, it was a created in Virginia. It was not created at this. Distillery, it is a Buffalo Trace product. So, Buffalo Trace has their new make, that comes off the Stills, you know, what we would call white dog, and it gets sent to the Bowman distillery in Virginia. Now, what what the rumor is that, that is twice distilled before it's sent to Virginia and then they put it through their Stills one more time and they're still It's just kind of give it a little bit of a funk, a little bit of something different. And so then they can say that they distilled some of this, you know, to some extent in Virginia and it is aged totally on premises in Virginia. So even though it's made by Buffalo Trace, it's then kind of imported to Virginia distilled.

30:10 Once more, I Brad, honestly, I don't, I don't know what more that imparts to this because I haven't tried it yet. It's sitting in front of me. I think it's a really interesting. Rata gee, I don't quite understand why they're not just producing their own new make and I have to read up more on The Distillery for that. But you know, when we come into some of these whiskey reviews, it's not that we want to come in blind, but even me just saying the words, Buffalo Trace made this right now. May have tainted your opinion of this a little bit. And so, you know, we want to judge what's in the glass and not necessarily rely on a history lesson or, you know, to give context. Round is this tasty?

30:52 Or is it not tasty? As I say, luckily for mr. John Jingleheimer. Bowman here. I already gave my scores, so I'm not going to knock down any points because if I'm being honest with you, Bob, this is a daggone good whiskey. So yeah, let's just jump right in man. You've already scored this out. I'm trying it for the first time and I just stuck my nose in the glass here. Now again, I know that this was distilled by Buffalo Trace, but the nose on this smells remarkably similar to Eagle Rare, which used to be my Favorite whiskey like one of the Whiskey's that got me into whiskey there is that kind of patented Buffalo Trace oakiness to this? It's not like on the level of a Woodford Double Oak. It still has the sort of classic bourbon notes, underlying all of it but it smells like Eagle Rare. I honestly, like, I don't even know if I have many more notes to give on the nose here.

31:43 Yeah, for me, it was Vanilla. Peanut butter, a little bit of toffee. It's a very nice. Not The in any way, not super complex knows, I gave it an 8 out of 10. Yeah. There is a little bit of like, really strong fruitiness to this to that comes through right at the end, almost like a bright green. Apple kind of granny smith thing that isn't usually, they're on equal rare for me. So it's a nice addition. I'm going to go ahead and give it an 8 as well. Brad, yeah. And then you get into the palette here, once again, vanilla peanut butter. And then, for me, it almost turned into like a cream. Um, soda with a little bit of Oak at the end. I once again, I have nothing to complain about here. Bob, it is a really Pleasant palette and I think 100 proof is just the right alcohol point for this. It just has enough of a kick that all of the flavors really pop.

32:41 So I'll give it an eight and a half out of ten on the flavor. Brad, I don't know how to score this on the flavor, the palette. I thought, I knew where this was going and all through the tasting experience. I was like, yep. Yep, yep. Checking all those boxes and then I swallowed it and I felt like the flavor took a 180. Now, that's not to say, it's bad. It's not to say it went from like, oh, this is really enjoyable or even predictable. And then it went to unpredictable. It just kind of like I went to swallow and I thought, okay, the sweetness is going to hit me now and it really never turned sweets. Is a very vague mild sweetness on the tip of the palate, like the tip of the tongue and the mid palate and then you go to swallow it, it's like all Oak and then kind of strong graininess for me. It almost turned a little bit sour at the end and I wasn't expecting that at all.

33:31 So I'm struggling with this a little bit. I took two sips, just to make sure that it wasn't just because my palate wasn't acclimated, but I think that's kind of just what we're dealing with here. I'm struggling to remember when we did Eagle Rare. The last time I feel like I I had some of these same complaints about Eagle Rare and so maybe it's in line with that. But it's even more pronounced here. I'm not the world's biggest fan of this dude. I think I'm going to give it a six and a half on the flavor, man. Bob that is that surprising to me for me, on the finish, it started to change. I got a little bit of Oak, some leather, some pepper, the vanilla kept coming through for me. I give it an 8 out of 10 on the finish. I I'm really surprised that this kind of soured I knew I did not get any grainy sour notes on the finish at all and it lingered for a long time.

34:20 After I drink it with some just really nice pleasant, sweet notes. Yeah, maybe it's not graininess. I'm taking a third and fourth step. Here it almost gets. I don't know what the word is, man. Like a, she like when you, when you smell a really rank cigarette and like, they almost leaves a flavor on your tongue. I kind of get that a little bit. It's just like, really her on the end for me. So the Finish is probably my least favorite part because it's like hey remember that Aunt that you don't like hanging out with that smelt, that smokes too many Marlboros like this is that you can hear me kind of struggling with. You know the alcohol is very present on the palate and especially on the Finish. Not my cup of tea, man, I'm going to give it a six out of ten again here.

35:08 We are going to be in vastly different places Bob on the balance. For me, it wasn't. Right complex enough to really hit the upper echelons but it was incredibly consistent and really tasty on my end. So I give it a 9 out of 10 on balance. Wow. Yeah, I'm going to give it a six again here and I suppose, it's probably more balanced than that, but I don't enjoy where it goes. And so, I'm kind of like, I'll follow you down whatever whole Rabbit Hole, you're going down here, but it's going to be a 6 for me, dog. And then that takes us to Value Brad. And I don't know what this is currently selling at in the state of Ohio. Did you pull up the, the pricing list here?

35:50 I don't think it's actually sold in Ohio. Oh, wow. I know they sell some products from The Bowman, distillery in Ohio, but apparently not, this single barrel. Yeah. So this is actually not sold in the state of Ohio Bob. The, the only one that they sell in Ohio is Bowman Brothers, small batch, okay. In Virginia and online, it seems to be for sale for $50, okay? All right, so I mean, here's the thing. It's like, do you like Buffalo Trace products? Here's one for you that is technically sold out of Virginia, but if you know you can't find Elmer T Li you can't find Eagle Rare, maybe you can find a bottle of this somewhere. And I imagine this is probably receiving the bump of Buffalo Trace.

36:36 Like people are probably seeking this out now that they know where it comes from. So at 50 bucks, even though I don't like it that much, you know, it's probably we more available and it's probably a comparable price point to Something Like an Eagle Rare. I don't think this is a terrible value Brad. I'm going to give it a seven and a half on value. Yeah, I think that at $50 to get a single barrel of this quality. I'm going to give it a 9 out of 10. I think it's a really solid value if you're able to find it. Now, once again, I think we do need to give the clarification and the sort of reminder that this is a single barrel. This might not be exactly the flavor profile that you would get. It from Barrel to Barrel maybe you know like I said I think it's a little aggressive than a little too over oaked.

37:20 We might not get that if we tried a different barrel of this product but we can only really review what's in front of us here. I'm coming out Brad to a 34 out of 50. What are you coming, too? I think we might have the biggest Gap we've ever had. I'm coming to a forty two point five out of five. Oh, wow. All right. So that brings us to a 76.5 out of 100. I just divided that by three instead of or a 38-point 25 out of 50. I think it's a little high. You probably think that's a little low but like, again, that's how math works. So do you recommend your job Bob? Thank you, sir.

38:02 Do you recommend trying D recommend buying? Yeah, I'd say go for it. I think this is a really solid expression coming out of Bowman. I really don't recommend this at all. However, If you're curious and if you like Buffalo Trace products then, yeah, get a poor at the bar. I don't know if I would immediately say like, yes, plunk down $50 for this. Although again, with the caveat of like, if you like, Buffalo Trace stuff, then you already know how hard it is, to find Buffalo Trace stuff. So it might just be worth picking up the bottle of this because this is close enough. So if that's you, yes, by a bottle. If you're curious, I think it's worth tasting at the bar. You this will probably set you back. What do you think Brad like 11? There's a poor.

38:44 Yeah, I would say 10 to 15. Yeah, like somewhere in that area, it's worth it. So go ahead and try it at the bar and if you already know that you're going to like it because it's a Buffalo Trace product, then go ahead and grab a bottle. If you can find it but you're right man we are coming out two very different places on this whiskey. Yeah it's wild. I I feel like our palates in general are somewhat similar but hey, it's a beautiful thing when you find something to disagree on. Well hopefully we don't disagree too much on this movie. Let's get back into talking about aliens. What do I say, let's get to it. All right, everybody, that was John J Bowman Single Barrel. A whiskey that was really, really incredible and absolutely nothing to complain about.

39:29 Yeah, not one thing. I feel about this whiskey. The way that you feel about the movie Avatar. Hey man, I gave Avatar seven and a half. Yeah, this is fine. I kind of came out to the same place on this Mickey. Yeah. Well, you know what? Is a seven and a half out of ten on this. Cast. Bob, what's that Brad to fax in a falsehood? I love that you are, like, you are desperately grasping for anything to make a segue to vaccinate falsehood. Hey, man, I'm just trying to stay away from the fact that you've been sucking it up lately. Dude, I suck so bad at this, this season, I'm like actively trying to find ways to just kill this segment because it can't be good audio at this point. Well, it's crazy because you started off like Owen 6 and then you were like eight and Seven and now I'm pretty sure you've lost like four in a row, so it's really good audio if you're into like, you know, schadenfreude, like if you really, if you really want to see Bob suffer, then this is the segment for you.

40:32 That's why I created it. This is where Brad presents three items to me about the making of This film, or something surrounding the film. All of that are presented. As fact, I have to pick, which one is the falsehood? And I'm clearly not very good at it. So, Brad. Go ahead and hit me with your Supposed facts, facts number one, Bill Paxton became annoyed with the constant breaks taken by the British production crew of Pinewood Studios and began playing pranks on them. His favorite of which was to add salts to their sugar, thus ruining their tea. Fax number two, Bill Paxton continuously apologized to Carrie Hen playing Newt throughout the filming every time.

41:16 Hudson had to swear in front of her carry later. And that she didn't really mind mainly because she did not know what any of the words men. It's a fax. Number three, this is one of the two films which Michael biehn and Bill Paxton play roles where they are on the same team. They're both Marines in this movie and four years later, Navy Seals, they are Navy Seals together in Tombstone, seven years later, they are enemies. And they also appear together in the Terminator and the Lords of discipline. They definitely are in The Terminator together. It could say that much. Um oh yeah, that sounds true. I don't know. Well, I'll say that's true. It could be false. Any of these could be false and I'm probably going to pick the wrong one.

41:59 I'm gravitating towards number one as the falsehood and I'll tell you why. Because, in our most recent episode, The falsehood also had something to do with T. I think it was the Celia Johnson in. Well, I guess that wasn't her most recent episode. It was the brief encounter 12 weeks ago. You said that Celia Johnson was real nervous and she wanted a specific kind of of tea, and the tea was the falsehood. And so now I'm just like attuned, that anytime I hear about tea, I'm like the only thing Brad apparently knows about British people is that they drink tea, so if he's gonna make something up, it's this one that's it. Bill Paxton seemed like a good dude. So I'm going to say that number two is true, just because I really like Bill Paxton and I want that to be true.

42:40 So yeah, I'm going to say one, is the falsehood Just for kicks and Giggles here. Bob you are Great. At breaking your streak today. Hey, hey, you are correct. That was the falsehood. Hey, I knew that your lack of knowledge about other cultures would benefit me someday that was it, man. That's the funny thing is, I honestly didn't even think about the Tea thing from from Brief Encounter. See now I can only get away with it. Once now, you're going to, like, it's going to be top of mind. Whenever your eyes, there's gonna be a tea related fact, in every single week. Now, All right, man. Well, I'm back on track.

43:21 I'm just going to say I'm over 500 again. I know that's not true wishful thinking. All right, let's talk a little bit about James Cameron again here. So we're going to dive a little bit deeper into trying to analyze this man in the next two weeks because we're going to be looking at two movies that he made that are in direct relation to each other in Terminator and T2. And I guess before we start psychoanalyzing, the guy, or trying to find motivations or Really putting on trial, his self-confidence. I just want to say like the guy knocks it out of the park here, but you were coming off of Avatar which is a movie that you famously are not a huge fan of and your your opinion of James Cameron had been colored by and now we're throwing it back to a movie that is perhaps his most purely entertaining movie and I just have to ask man like has this rehabilitated His image.

44:18 For you any and like what themes or what consistencies are you seeing? If any, I think the thing I really appreciate about Cameron is his ability to take really interesting characters and put them in insanely stressful, situations, and gives the audience an opportunity to just watch what comes out of those characters. And I think that you don't get Add an avatar would? Well, I mean, you get the stressful situation. You just don't get interesting characters and that's the problem. However, there's a really great movie called Titanic. Hmm.

45:02 We haven't talked about Titanic at all, but I think that aliens weirdly kind of has the same setup as Titanic, like you have these people who are looking to start a new life. Life and yet they are drawn into a wildly stressful intense situation where they have to make life and death decisions and Cameron like you said earlier about his action sequences he's just such a direct filmmaker that focuses the camera and really nice ways. He doesn't allow there to be a lot of extraneous movement. He does, he doesn't allow for a lot of the other stuff to get in the way of just, what are these?

45:48 These characters going to do and I think he does an incredible job with it and Titanic and I think he does an incredible job with it here in Aliens. Yeah, 100% man. And honestly, I didn't want to move into. Let's make it a double so quickly here. But you know, I have to admit that for as much as I love Steven Spielberg and how he is unique and original and one-of-a-kind watching moments of this movie, I was like, oh man, did Spielberg. Lift a little bit of this for Jurassic Park. Dude, when they're underneath the bed in the face Grabber seen, I was like, oh it's when the kids are in the G. Yeah.

46:32 Like look, waiting for the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Yeah. Or the or the kitchen sequence with the velocity vectors, right? Yeah, the moment for me is at the very end of the movie where the queen is chasing them and Newt and Ripley, get on the elevator and they cut back to the queen as she figures out what an elevator is. And I'm like, oh, it's the Velociraptor is learning how to open a door like it's the same thing Nana. And the more I thought about it the more I was like wow this is exactly what Jurassic Park is. It's an hour long set up and then straight horror and action for the last hour. There is no letting up. You are on the edge of your seat, it's a Thrill Ride and when you get off at the end you are kind of physically exhausted. And like man I got my money's worth here and I think that there is something to be said about the fact that Cameron did it seven years earlier than Burke dead, right? I mean I know I understand Spielberg had done this many times before, and Jaws is a thing, but I think the direct comparison from this is Jurassic Park. And if I had to pick this to pair up with something, I think that would be the movie, I would pick. And I do think Spielberg was at least somewhat influenced by the way that Cameron shot cut and paste this movie. I think for I think that's a really good pick, man. I think for me, I'm going to go a little bit more modern and I'm going to Pick the first John Wick movie. Hmm.

47:55 And for me, the reason is, I think that there's a similar pacing to John Wick, where it starts off a little bit slow, but once you hit the mid point of the movie, it just is non-stop action. And just really, honestly shot action sequences that don't have a lot of frill about them. And so, you know, vastly different subject matter that The different eras of film history, but I think that there's enough in common here that I would want to go. If I was going to do a double feature of just great action films, I would go aliens and then John Wick.

48:37 That is super interesting. I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, but I like that double feature, you know, but at the end of the day, like we're just going to be watching many, many, really good action. Movies if we pair this up, something, exactly. Here's my question to you before we get final scores. Ours. Is it unfair to pick a genre to categorize this movie Under? Because, you know, they always say, like, people always say that the first alien is a horror Masterpiece or a Sci-Fi Masterpiece, and that this movie is an action Masterpiece. And I understand that this is like, it's a great action movie. There is so much ass kicked in this movie. It is wonderful. It's also a really good sci-fi movie like the the the visualization of how the eggs come out. Of like the Fallopian tubes of the alien. It's like it's gross but it is really effective World building. They I learned a lot about alien reproduction in this movie. I gotta say.

49:34 Yeah. You sure did Bob. It's also a really effective horror movie. Like there's a ton of jump-scares, but, and I would say, probably leans a little bit more suspense than outright horror. But I thought you wanted the end of this movie. When there's the big reveal that the alien had been clinging to the bottom of the ship and it likes. Where's the robot through the midsection and then Picks Them Up and rips them in half in like half a second. I was like, oh, this is terrifying. Like it, I can't decide what category to put this in and I almost feel like it would be unfair to pick one. Action. It's an action movie of. All right. Okay. I would call it an action horror. Do you feel like the horror was effective in this movie? Yes.

50:19 Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I mean, especially just the the raw grow sness of this. This thing grabbing onto your face and implanting an embryo into you is just go like Oh my god, dude. Like horrid doesn't just have to be jump-scares. It has to be ideas. That literally make your skin crawl. And so if that doesn't do it for you, then I don't know what kind of horror you're looking for. It has the benefit of the more horrific elements of the first movie working on its side. So that when this elite team drops into this planet and is trying to scope everything out, it's really suspenseful because you know, what's coming and they don't and that is He's like, it's terrifying, it's suspenseful. And so he really ramps up the suspense. But then once the horror elements start, they are genuinely scary too.

51:19 And, you know, you just mentioned the idea of like, the, the violation of the Facehugger we touched on this a little bit in the first alien episode, but especially in a movie like this, where Ripley truly becomes an action hero. I feel like this is kind of like feminist Theory 101 movie. Like if you were introducing a group of college students, in a film class to the Dia of reading movies through a feminist lens. Aliens is like your prototype, right? I mean it's it's a movie in which the major theme of the film is motherhood but bodily autonomy, right? Like this, is you line this movie up with like a row v Wade thing and it's like, okay, I understand what's going on here.

51:59 Like it's an argument for a woman wanting to have autonomy over her body again, you know, over against this thing that is trying to violate her. And so like, it's all there for further reading. Ting. But the great thing about this movie, like it just works everything about this movie works, it works on a surface level, it works on a deeper level, it takes themes from the first movie and expands upon them. It takes some things from the first movie and says, F that we're just going to shoot a bunch of things with machine guns. Like, it's like whatever your demographic. There is something in this movie for you and like, is it, is it a brutal movie at times? Yeah. Like it's a rated R movie from the 80s when the violence. Was much more violent than it is today. And like, I, you know, I just got back from seeing the second avatar movie last night.

52:47 I went to a late showing, I'm really tired because I was out till almost three in the morning watching Avatar. But even today, like Avatar is a PG-13 movie with a lot of people getting machine-gunned. And the violence is really kind of shocking for PG-13 because I'm so used to the bloodless lifeless violence of the MCU now but camera knows how to use violence. And like, this is just a reminder of that I'm going on. And on Brad, I love this movie. I'll give it a final score. I'm gonna give it a 9 and a half out of ten. It's a really great movie. Yeah, I'll give it a 9 out of 10. Bob, I think this is an incredible action movie near the top of what action movies have to offer and it's largely because it mixes genres. So yeah, Cameron does incredible work here man. Alright, so it's a 9.25 on average from us, but we would like to know what you think.

53:40 Particularly I hate to do this because people love both movies if you had to pick between alien and Aliens, I want to know what's your choice. So you can find us to tell us your choice on our social media Pages, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at film whiskey, or you can jump into the conversation on our Discord. Discord is an awesome place. It's a private server, where only us the fans of movies and whiskey can talk to one another and in a gauge on these subjects. So if you want to join the conversation, you can find the link to our Discord. At the end of every single one of our show notes, I got to ask you, man, which one's your preference.

54:22 I think aliens. I think so too. I think I would revisit this more than the first alien. Yeah, I think so. I think the fact that they don't just do the horror bit but they do just enough horror to make it horrifying, just enough action to make it thrilling. I I really like what Cameron did here. All right, next week, we will throw it back a couple years from this to the movie that really announced James Cameron on the world stage and that is 1984 Terminator. Join us for that and Brad's inevitably spicy takes next week. But until then, I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and we'll see you next time.